A single mother is suing her bank for harassment after being bombarded with letters and phone calls about her overdraft.

Alison Turner claims she suffered anxiety and stress after the Halifax bank inundated her with correspondence â even though it had agreed to leave her alone.

Ms Turner’s lawyers had forced the bank to wipe £775 worth of charges which it imposed for going overdrawn.

But Halifax’s collections department continued to call the 31-year-old at ‘all times of the day and night’ for almost two months.

It is claimed ‘disrespectful’ phone-calls and letters left her so stressed that she suffered emotional problems.

Now Ms Turner, of Plymouth, has launched a ground-breaking legal action seeking an injunction against the bank and ‘substantial damages’.

Her solicitor Neil Mercer said: ‘What you have here is a woman who had hundreds of pounds worth of charges put on her account for going a few pounds overdrawn.

‘The bank subsequently agreed to remove the charges but, in the interim period, the customer services department and the collections team seemed to have no contact.

‘She was constantly harangued for money she no longer owed. The calls were coming in at night, in the morning and at weekends. Her two young children would often take the calls and be asked to provide security details.’

Halifax said it could not comment on specific cases or ahead of any court hearing.